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NUMISMATIC  NO ’ hS: > 
AND  MONOGRAPh'^^ 

No.  8 


THE  MINT  OF  THE 
PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 


By  gilbert  S.  PEREZ 


THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 
BROADWAY  AT  156TH  STREET 
NEW  YORK 


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NUM  ISMATIC 

NOTES  & MONOGRAPHS 


COPYRIGHT  1921  BY 

THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 


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LIBRARY 


vr» 


The  Mint  of  the  Philippine  Islands  in  the  Old  Intendencia  Building 


THE  MINT  OF  THE 
PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 


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THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 
BROADWAY  AT  156th  STREET 
NEW  YORK 
1921 


The  Author  is  indebted  to  Dr.  A.  P 
Fitzimmons,  First  Director  of  the  Mint, 
for  courtesies,  information,  illustrations 
and  helpful  suggestions. 


I 

THE  MINT  OF  THE 
PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 

By  Gilbert  S.  Perez 

The  first  colonial  mint  of  the  United 
States  was  opened  on  the  fifteenth  of 
July,  1920,  at  Manila,  thus  instituting 
a new  departure  in  our  mint  procedure. 
Some  years  previously  this  policy  had 
been  adopted  by  England,  whose  colonial 
mints  had  been  established  in  Australia, 
India  and  Canada.  Since  1903  the  United 
States  Government  had  minted  the  coin- 
age for  the  Philippine  Islands  at  Philadel- 
phia and  San  Francisco.  Expediency, 
economy,  the  possibility  of  quicker  deliv- 
eries, together  with  the  Government’s 
policy  of  helping  the  Filipinos  to  partici- 
pate in  the  management  of  domestic  af- 
fairs, were  the  determining  features  for 
the  establishing  of  the  Manila  mint.  On 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

2 

THE  MINT  OF  THE 

February  8,  igi8,  the  Philippine  Legisla- 
ture passed  a bill  appropriating  100,000 
pesos,  half  the  original  appropriation,  for 
the  construction  of  machinery  for  a new 
mint.  This  bill  was  signed  by ' Governor 
Harrison  eight  days  later. 

The  machinery  was  designed  and  built 
at  Philadelphia  under  the  supervision  of 
Clifford  Hewitt,  then  chief  engineer  of  the 
United  States  mint.  In  June,  1919,  it 
was  assembled,  tested  and  found  satisfac- 
tory; it  was  then  shipped  to  the  Philippine 
Islands  via  the  Panama  Canal,  arriving  at 
Manila  in  November  in  perfect  condition. 
Mr.  Hewitt  reached  Manila  at  the  end  of 
the  month  and  undertook  the  installation 
of  the  machinery. 

Although  the  Manila  mint  is  probably 
the  smallest  in  the  world,  it  is  one  of  the 
finest ’and  most  modern.  It  is  located  on 
the  lower  floor  of  the  old  Intendencia 
Building  fronting  the  Pasig  River.  This 
building  also  contains  the  offices  and  the 
hall  of  the  Philippine  Senate,  and  the  of- 
fices of  the  Treasury  of  the  Philippine 
Islands. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 

3 

On  October  nth,  three  months  after  its 
inauguration,  the  mint  narrowly  escaped 
destruction  by  fire  which  gutted  the  two 
upper  floors  of  the  Intendencia  Building. 
The  Senate  hall,  the  offices  of  the  Insular 
Treasurer  and  other  governmental  offices 
were  totally  destroyed,  but  the  mint  on  the 
lower  floor  was  so  little  damaged  that 
minting  was  resumed  next  morning. 

The  mint  was  formally  opened  on 
Thursday  morning,  July  15th.  A copper 
ingot  was  taken  from  the  furnace,  cooled, 
rolled  into  a thin  strip  between  the  heavy 
rollers  of  a machine,  shot  beneath  the 
smoothly  working  pistons  of  another  ma- 
chine whence  it  emerged  in  the  form  of 
many  small  discs  and  then  placed  in  the 
stamping  machine  — and  there  came  into 
existence  the  first  piece  of  money  ever 
coined  under  the  American  government  in 
the  Philippine  Islands.  The  first  one- 
centavo  piece  was  coined  by  Governor- 
General  Harrison  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Hewitt.  Speaker  Osmena  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  a like  man- 
ner, struck  off  the  first  medal  (designed 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

4 

THE  MINT  OF  THE 

by  Mr.  Cliflord  Hewitt)  which  was  issued 
in  commemoration  of  the  opening.  On 
the  obverse  of  the  medal  appears  the  pro- 
file of  President  Wilson;  the  reverse  shows 
the  figure  of  Liberty  protecting  and  in- 
structing beginners  in  the  art  of  coining, 
holding  in  her  right  hand  a pair  of  scales 
to  demonstrate  the  absolute  necessity  for 
care  and  exactness  in  operation  which  all 
mint  work  demands.  On  the  first  day 
two  thousand  of  these  medals  were  minted. 

The  official  party  at  the  formal  opening 
included  the  Governor- General  and  Mrs. 
Harrison;  Speaker  Osmeha;  Mr.  Kwei 
Chih,  Chinese  Consul-General;  Hon.  Al- 
berto Barreto,  Secretary  of  Finance;  Dr. 
A.  P.  Fitzimmons,  Director  of  the  Mint 
and  former  Treasurer  of  the  Philippine 
Islands,  and  Mr.  Clifford  Hewitt,  the 
mint’s  metallurgist. 

The  mint  is  prepared  to  coin  all  bronze, 
nickel  and  silver  money  needed  for  circu- 
lation in  the  Islands;  it  has  a daily  output 
of  85,000  pieces,  and  an  annual  capacity  of 
25,000,000  coins,  made  possible  by  twenty 
electrically  driven  machines. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

Medal  Commemorating 
the  Opening  of  the  Mint 
Manila,  1920 


PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 

1 

5 

In  order  to  insure  the  legal  fineness  of 
bullion  received  as  deposits  and  of  ingots 
for  coinage  purposes,  as  well  as  to  make 
accurate  payment  to  depositors  of  metal, 
a well  equipped  assay  department  has 
been  instituted.  Such  an  establishment 
will  have  a stimulating  effect  on  the  min- 
ing of  gold  and  silver  throughout  the 
Islands.  Gold  is  mined  in  considerable 
quantities  in  Baguio,  Paracale  and  Aroroy, 
and  silver  in  the  Island  of  Marinduque. 
As  the  gold  mined  here  has  heretofore 
been  refined  by  the  cyanide  process  it  was 
not  of  very  high  fineness,  but  with  the 
improved  electrolitic  process  it  is  possible 
to  obtain  the  fineness  of  999.9  plus. 

With  regard  to  the  melting  department, 
the  output  of  each  melting  furnace,  fig- 
ured on  an  eight-hour  day  basis,  would  be 
approximately  2000  pounds.  A specially 
designed  settling  chamber  has  been  built 
which  reduces  the  silver  melting  losses  to 
a minimum  of  three-quarters  of  an  ounce 
on  every  thousand  ounces  melted. 

The  rolling  and  cutting  department  con- 
sists of  two  50  h.  p.  electrically  driven 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

6 

THE  MINT  OF  THE 

machines  of  the  most  modern  type,  fitted 
with  hardened  steel  rolls.  They  are 
equipped  with  a patented  adjustment 
whereby  the  rolls  can  be  regulated  to  one 
ten-thousandth  of  an  inch.  By  this  ac- 
curate adjustment  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
producing  perfectly  uniform  strips  of  sil- 
ver so  that  when  planchets  are  cut  they  will 
be  within  the  legal  tolerance  of  weight. 

An  automatic  coin  reviewing  machine 
has  been  installed.  The  coins  are  dumped 
into  a distributing  hopper  which  drops 
them  on  a travelling  belt  where  each  coin 
passes  slowly  before  the  reviewer’s  eye 
and  the  condemned  pieces  picked  out. 
Those  which  are  perfect  pass  on  and  fall 
into  a-  box  at  the  end  of  the  machine. 
They  are  counted  by  means  of  a coin 
counting  board  which  holds  five  hundred 
pieces.  An  experienced  operator  of  this 
board  can  handle  2000  coins  of  any  de- 
nomination per  minute.  As  they  are 
counted  they  are  placed  in  bags. 

A complete  mechanical  department  has 
also  been  installed,  with  fully  equipped 
machine,  blacksmith,  electrical,  plumbing 

NUMISMATIC  NOTESj 

Officials  and  Employees  of  the  Mint 


Interior  of  the  Mint 


PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 

7 

and  carpenter  shops.  This  department  is 
very  necessary  for  a suceessful  operation 
of  the  mint,  as  all  tools  and  speeial  medal 
or  coin  dies  may  be  made  in  these  shops  at 
a minimum  cost. 

The  annealing  and  cleaning  department 
consists  of  an  automatic  rotary  annealing 
furnace.  All  the  coin  blanks  are  run 
through  this  furnace  at  a temperature  of 
1400  degrees!  Fahrenheit,  as  eontinual  roll- 
ing hardens  metal  and  annealing  restores 
the  original  softness  to  the  coin  blank.  In 
this  process  the  coin  blanks  become  oxi- 
dized or  tarnished.  This  oxidization  is  re- 
moved by  rumbling  and  burnishing  them 
in  water  and  compound  in  a special  rotary 
washing  machine.  The  blanks  are  then 
placed  in  a eentrifugal  coin  dryer  which 
extracts  all  moisture. 

The  weighing  system  eonsists  of  a large 
six-foot  bullion  balanee  with  a capacity 
for  weighing  10,000  ounees  of  coin,  clip- 
pings or  ingots.  The  coins  are  weighed 
individually  by  an  automatic  weighing 
machine  to  determine  which  fall  within 
the  legal  law  of  toleranee,  whieh  is  less 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

8 

PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 

than  11/2  grains  over  or  under  the  legal 
standard.  These  automatically  controlled 
scales  are  enclosed  in  glass,  designed  to 
weigh  to  of  a grain  and  are  entirely  me- 
chanical in  operation.  There  are  10 
weighing  beams  in  each  scale,  and  each 
beam  will  weigh  10  coins  a minute  — 100 
coins  on  the  10  beams  — approximating 
a daily  output  of  48,000  coins  figured  on 
an  eight-hour  day  basis.  This  machine 
separates  the  heavy  and  light  pieces  from 
those  that  fall  within  the  tolerance  allowed. 
All  that  is  required  of  the  operator  is  to 
keep  the  ten  feeding  tubes  filled  with  coins, 
as  the  machine  does  the  weighing  and  sep- 
arating into  different  boxes. 

The  Director  of  the  Mint,  Dr.  A.  P. 
Fitzimmons,  former  Insular  Treasurer  of 
the  Philippine  Islands,  was  greatly  instru- 
mental in  securing  the  appropriation  for 
the  mint  and  in  organizing  it.  Practically 
all  of  the  employees  are  Filipinos;  and  hav- 
ing no  previous  mint  experience,  the  present 
efficiency  is  attributed  to  the  painstaking 
instruction  of  Mr.  Hewitt  and  to  the  me- 
chanical aptitude  of  the  Filipino  people. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

GETTY  CENTER  LIBRARY 
3 3125  00885  5914 


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